Things I Love Thursday

1,2,3,4

I found this store on dooce, and I couldn't help pick out my own favorites.

Music Monday

Ben Folds Five—Do It Anyway


I don't know if it's because this song is so catchy and cute, if it's because Ben Folds is a band that I have liked for a while, or if it's the adorable Fraggle Rock themed video, but this is my new favorite music video.

Swagbucks September Promo

I have mentioned my love for the site swagbucks a couple of times before. Lately, they have been adding some pretty sweet incentives for using the site more often, such as daily goals that, when reached, automatically add extra swagbucks to your account at the end of the month. Since I mostly use my points for Amazon Gift Cards, their latest promotion made me swoon:

When you snag an Amazon.com Gift Card from Swagbucks during the month of September, you are rewarded with a $1 promotional credit for Amazon MP3. I know this is flagrant self promotion, but you can use this link to start earning reward points today and snag your Amazon.com Gift Card and $1 Amazon MP3 promotional credit before Sept. 30th. I would hurry before the month is over! This is a pretty sweet deal, and I've already used it to purchase two songs, one of them may have been Call Me Maybe (but I'll never tell!).

If you have any questions about the promo, you can read more about it on the swagbucks blog.

Things I Love Thursday

Greyhound Snoods

from Etsy shop GoodWitKnit

The only question is, how many snoods should my greyhound have?! Also, I love this guy, modeling like a boss. Matt, I fear I will have knit eighteen snoods for my hypothetical dog before I finish your gloves/set of koozies.

Honorable Mention
Red lipstick ♥ autumn weather ♥ Zyrtec (for the ragweed that comes with autumn weather) ♥ scarf weather (not the same as autumn weather, or sweater weather, which also gets a shout out) ♥ being able to pump my own bike tires (yes, I was once a weakling, but now I am STRONG...enough to do something a twelve year old can do, probably.).

Music Mondays

Mumford & Sons—I Will Wait


Video for the first Mumford & Sons single from their upcoming album Babel. Drops next week, Sept 25th.

Things I Love Thursday

Rufus Tower!


I know that cats give zero F*s about people, but this video was still adorbs. Seen on Jezebel.

Music Mondays

Dominique Pruitt—To Win Your Love

This song is super cute with a vintage '50s vibe. I can't wait to hear the whole album.

Things I Love Thursday

I got this dinosaur free when I made a purchase on photojojo some time ago. I really, really like this dinosaur. I liked him before I discovered he glowed in the dark.

Go(Away)-Daddy

Hey all, remember this entry about GoDaddy's acquisition of Outright?

Remember specifically the part where Outright insisted that GoDaddy's advertising was shifting? That the commercials are evolving to focus more on what the company does to help its customers instead of being sexist drivel?



Yeah. Uh, buh-bye Outright. It's been nice knowing you, ya jerks.

Project 365 Update: August

Guess what we did in August! We traveled to Italy and Croatia! Yes, sure there are a bunch of orange squares. In addition to packing for travel, I was able to score a part-time temp job in the weeks leading up to the trip, which was great in that it gave us spending money, but man was that an intense two weeks!

It was great, but it did not leave a lot of time for photography. I hope to set more clear goals in the future that allow for these contingencies, so that I still feel like taking a photo even after an exhausting day.

Rather than choose a favorite image from the month (because after all the great shots I got in Europe that would be practically impossible), I will simply refer you to this flickr photo album, which more than makes up for those orange squares.

Things I Love Thursday

My Bicycle


We recently got back from a two week vacation to Rome, Venice, and Croatia (Poreč and Zagreb), and one of the things I didn't even realize I missed was riding my bicycle to work. We had walked so much (SO MUCH) that I even considered walking to work today, but instead I brushed off my blue hybrid and I rode to work. The phrase "like riding a bicycle" was so apt. Even though it's only been two weeks, it feels like it's been ages. It feels like we were a world away. Riding my bike reinforced the idea that, yes, I am back home again.

Music Mondays

It's Alright To Cry—Moufette


This song is featured at the end of the first act of an episode of This American Life called How to Rest in Peace. It is an incredibly sad episode about murder and suicide, but this rendition of this song stuck out to me because once upon a time my therapist told me, "It's okay to cry...haven't you ever heard the song?" Then he sent me a link to the original, and I laughed and laughed and had a good cry. It felt really good.

The song is also featured on the Half Nelson soundtrack. Hope you enjoy the Moufette version which reminds me a little bit of Sia's Breathe Me

Music Mondays

Animal Collective - Today's Supernatural

This isn't the first animal collective song I've posted, and it won't be the last.

Things I Love Thursday

Big Fishes


We caught some Striped Bass last Thursday, and they were delicious. More delicious than this fish, probably:

The bass I am holding was maybe the smallest fish we caught that day, although I believe they were all around 30 lbs. I have held the fish before, but it was the first time I've ever caught one on my own—those bastards are heavy!

It was also really nice to see my family. Even though they've been to Boston before, we managed to find a lot of activities that they still hadn't done (and a few that they have, but that we love so much, we had to do it again). We definitely got our visit off with a bang with the striper fishing trip, though. We also highly recommend this Martha Stewart recipe.

CORGI-CAM!


'nuff said.

Project 365 Update: July

Keeping in trend with my failure to take a picture everyday, July was pretty bad. The second to last week, you can see my final presentation for my graphic design class, which was a major component, but other than that, there are no excuses. Here's hoping August will be better.

Back to the wall? I'd have to say my favorite photo was the one taken the day we went out on Captain Tim's boat to catch fish.

Music Mondays

Do Not Push - A Gotye Call Me Maybe Mashup by Pomplamoose


Now that you have both of those songs stuck in your head simultaneously, your brain will explode.

Music Mondays

Stars—Hold on When You Get Love and Let Go When You Give It

Like everything else that comes from Stars, this song is exceptionally great. Shoegazing music was my life in '05-'06. It's great to see a band that continues to put out the same quality music that made me fall in love back then.

Things I Don't Love Thursday

Thursdays are usually my day to reflect on the positive, but today I thought I'd take a departure from that to stand on a soapbox.

For a few years, I have used a service called Outright to track my freelance profits and expenses. Because I always had a second job while freelancing, it was never much help, but it was still a clean, simple tool that I looked forward to using it when I switched to freelancing fulltime—until I got the news that Outright has been acquired by GoDaddy.

Quite some time ago I purchased the domain name I use for my portfolio. I did some research and I settled on GoDaddy because they came recommended by their very low introductory prices and decent but not stellar customer service. By men, mind you. College aged men. In pure Baader-Meinhof fashion I finally started noticing their extremely sexist ads. I had probably never noticed them before because at the time the ads never said what GoDaddy did. I kept them as my domain name registrar, but switched servers immediately. A week ago I moved my domain names to another registrar when they were about to expire, and I was happy to be done with them.

When Outright sent an email announcing they were acquired by GoDaddy, I initially thought, "oh no." But it's a free service that I like. I'm uncomfortable supporting a company that indirectly gives money/information to GoDaddy...but decided to see what they had to say before I made any snap judgements.

This line clinched it for me (emphasis mine):

Like I did, many of you probably recognize Go Daddy for its controversial Super Bowl commercials. Go Daddy is much more than a company with edgy ads, it is a company committed to customer service and helping small businesses grow online. And, by the way, Go Daddy’s advertising is shifting, as you’ll see in the upcoming Olympics. The commercials are evolving to focus more on what the company does to help its customers.

Um...back it up a bit, Outright. First, thanks for being all condescending and telling your customer base what GoDaddy is (lord knows GoDaddy never did). But are the commercials...sorry, edgy commercials going to evolve away from sexist trash, or is it just that cleverly edited topless women are FINALLY going to explain to us what, exactly, it is that GoDaddy does to help its customers? I guess I'll have to wait and see.

But let's hold the phone, here. Never mind their edgy offensive ads. Let's take a look at their support of SOPA (their stance ever wavering and always unclear). We could also talk about former CEO Bob Parsons trying to pass off shooting an elephant as a humanitarian act after getting tons of backlash for gloating about it in an Internet video. Afterwards, you can see poor Zimbabweans ripping meat from the elephant...all in bright orange GoDaddy clothing. But if their advertising is shifting, well, then. By all means, Outright...that's a horse of a different color!

Now, all of this is incidental. I left GoDaddy, so I have no actual beef with them—they can do whatever they want with their company, but I will no longer be funding my portion of it. In the past, the company has been a sexist, childish, boy's club—if they decided to change their structure top down...great!  But it wouldn't change how I feel. I'm really happy with my current web host—a company that uses wind farms to power their servers and does not have the second most sexist ads ever aired on TV in my lifetime (You're welcome, AXE). Their mascot is an inoffensive cartoon cow.

In the meantime, I will be making my own excel files and writing Outright a letter wishing them luck but telling them how disappointed I am with them. I guess them's the shakes in small businesses, and this will probably be a good move for them, but I will be happy to move on from yet another company controlled by GoDaddy.

Music Mondays

Lupe Fiasco—Around My Way  (Freedom Ain't Free)


This song is another departure from my regular listening, but I liked this song—surprising how something like this makes great background noise for browsing the Internet for pictures of wolves (another story for another time), because of it's energetic fervor. The video on the other hand...Well, it's very Paula Abdul circa 1989 meets X-Men (Cyclops' eyes, people.)

This is the first single from Lupe Fiasco's upcoming Food and Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1. The Album Drops September 25th.

Good Times Music Mondays

Kitty Pryde & Riff Raff—Orion's Belt

This is a departure from my usual style of music, but I thought I'd include this Myspace-like track because the video reminded me of this adult arcade we used to go to called Good Time Emporium. Good Times was, just that—a place to play video games and go karts and laser tag and maybe get stabbed in the parking lot. The only arcade I ever knew to have an armed police officer at the front door at all times.

Bonus: some pictures of us looking (and being) really, really young, courtesy of a friend of ours who loved Good Times maybe more than we did.